It’s a well-known fact that games journalists are bad at video games. It’s why we’re constantly pushing for accessibility and approachability changes in the medium – not to help more people play more games, but for our own satisfaction. It’s why, in some circles, easy game 𒅌modes are dubbed ‘journalist mode’.
I’m being facetious, of course, but this viewpoint is widespread among a subset of online gamers. They conveniently ignore that games are our hobby as much as they are theirs, that we spend more time playing games than your average player, not less, and that one of my colleagues was once a semi-professional 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Apex Legends playဣer. But remember that one guy playing Cuphead, right?
I’ve long been heckled with claims that I need to ‘git gud’ (u🉐sually in response to accessibility-related articles, which says a lot more about them than it ജdoes me), or am told to learn to code, which is another career fraught with insecurity that I have no wish to switch to. I’m making a living in this precarious industry, and I will continue doing so for as long as I can, thank you very much.
Tꦚhat said,🅠 I do think there are some merits in learning how to code (that’s the only compliment you’re getting in this article, Ben Sledge Haters). I like to think I have an above-average understanding of how games are made, thanks to countless interviews with developers, my long-held position reporting on this industry, and the hours of free time I while away watching development documentaries like NoClip’s Arkane and Hades series, and Double Fine’s PsychOdyssey. However, I believe that if I knew some basics of coding, it would open up a whole new world of understanding, and I would probably be a better reporter for it.
Aforementioned journalists and documentarians NoClip had the same🐻 idea, and the team have been documenting their first game development experiment on their behind-the-scenes , alongside regular programming. With the help of Sub Rosa developer Alex Austin, the team started building , a demo of which is available now as a part of Steam Next Fest.
The premise of the game is simple: you’re racing. It’s got an old school Windows 95 feel, a load of other players on the same track, and various game modes that involve stopping certain cars from crossing the finish line or just bashing all your opponents off course to take hom🎉e the win in a more standard fashion. It’s demolition derby meets Mario Kart, with loop-the-loops and jumps taking courses further away from realism and into that fun, arcade-style gameplay.
Not all of that is available in the demo, however. There’s a basic track that you can race around with bots – a figure eight with some ramps and tight corners, checkpoints to ensure you don’t cheese it, and plenty of destructible hurdles in your way – and the ability to create or join matches. This is how NoClip envisions people playing: jumping on with a group of friends Counter-Strike style and revving and🌸 bashing until you&rsq﷽uo;re all tuckered out. I haven’t played online yet, but it’s already an impressive game.
I’ll be clear: Stunt Derby is no🐟t going to win any awards. It’s not going to be an all-time classic🎉 or even a hidden gem. But for a group of journalists and enthusiasts, albeit with plenty of backing and professional help, to create a working video game that is fun to play is great. Stunt Derby is fun! And that’s all they will have wanted.
There are hints of more features in the demo: a level editor that is a bit too finicky and not quite working, car customisation that is presently pretty basic, but the core gameplay loop is there, and it’s good. Good enough for a demo, anyway. NoClip obviously has some advantages that many developers don’t, with a decent🅘 amount of Patreon funding, access to established developers for advice or work opportunities, and a large audience ready to lap up its game, but that’s no guarantee of success. Neither is a fun demo. Whatever the outcome for Stunt Derby, failing at making a game would make for just as good a documentary as succeeding, and that’s enough for me.